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U.S. Charity Worker Freed From Egyptian Detention

Updated 05.05.17 2:25PM ET / Published 04.21.17 7:19AM ET

Mohamed Abd El Ghany

An Egyptian-American charity worker who had been imprisoned in Cairo for three years has returned to the U.S. Trump aides have reportedly been working for weeks to free 30-year-old Aya Hijazi, a native of Falls Church, Virginia, and her husband, Mohamed Hassanein. They were back in the U.S. on Thursday. Hijazi was in Cairo working with the Belady Foundation when she was incarcerated in May 2014 on farcical charges. Human-rights groups have said the couple was abused during their detention. Trump reportedly sent a U.S. government aircraft to Cairo to bring Hijazi’s family back to Washington. The Obama administration made many unsuccessful attempts to secure the couple’s release, but Trump’s embrace of President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi at the White House this month, during which he publicly hailed the autocrat, made the difference, according to some sources.